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Courtesy photoNed, then 4, and an uncle prepare for a trip to Ohio in 1925. ‘I can’t imagine the roads they must have traveled in that truck, said FrancesSOLETHER-FROM Clcotton and drive a truck and a tractor.”Ned was in the middle of his junior year at Texas AM University when World War II broke out.He already knew how to fly an airplane, and the Navy was happy to have him when he volunteered. He ended up behind the controls of a Corsair,During his first tour of duty in the Pacific, Ned was attached to a Marine unit on the atoll of Majuro, in the Marshall Islands.“It was just a strip of nothing, like a coral reef, Frances said.In between patrols there was little to do but play cards, and Ned became an expert at poker and bridge.On his next tour of duty, aboard the carrier USS Manila Bay, he picked up another skill.When I first met him, one night I saw him play pool,” Frances said. “I thought, ‘Good Lord, he’s probably been around pool halls all of his life.’Nope, he had learned on the carrier. Due to the rocking of the ship, Ned said you had to be very skilled, “almost scientific.”Fighter pilots like Ned were assigned to clear the way for torpedo bombers, knocking out anti-aircraft defenses. While the bombers set up their runs, theSolether, Ned’s wife.fighters would fly escort, keeping enemy planes away.With the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the mission changed. Ned’s group began dropping needed supplies to Americans being held at Japanese prison camps.Ned really enjoyed that: doing something peaceful after all of that fighting, Frances said.After his discharge in late 1945, Ned attended the University of Texas at Austin.This was thanks to the G.I. Bill,” Frances said. “People who could never buy a home or never go to college; what they got out of the war was the G.I. Bill... It was a wonderful thing.”Raised in Mineola, near Tyler, Frances was also attending U.T. She met Ned throughher roommate.Frances graduated in May 1947, and they married that June.We were married 57 years, she said. “So, it worked.”They moved to College Station right away. By returning to AM, Ned could earn his degree in economics in less time.With his degree in hand, they moved to Weslaco.I remember the first time 1 came to visit. I didn't think we were ever going to get here,” she said. After I got to know his dad, I asked him, ‘Were you running from the law when you moved down here?’He said, ‘No, but I wanted cheap land to farm.'They moved into their home on Border Avenue in 1951, on their son Robert’s first birthday. At that time, the street was still dirt. The new neighborhood was also dotted with other veterans.All of the men had a special bond because of the war, Frances said. None of them ever really talked much about it except amongst themselves.”Ned got together with a boyhood friend, Jimmy Stone, and rented some land from Clell along Highway 83. They opened a used car lot called the Delta Motor Co.Things were going good until two straight freezes in theearly 1950s.That wiped out a lot of people,” Frances said. The produce business was never the same after those freezes.Ned and Jimmy closed up shop and went to work for the Knapp group of auto dealerships. Both would spend the next 30 years with the company.The '50s were a wonderful time here. The children could play outside and you never had to worry about them,” she said. We all watched out for each other. It was nice ... But timeschange.”Ned continued to fly after the war, buying an early Beechcraft. He and Frances would often go for flights in the evening, putting around the Valley up in the clouds.After a few years, Ned wanted a new plane. He told Frances that the old one was suffering from “metal fatigue.”He just wanted a faster plane,” Frances said with achuckle.Ned got his plane. A few months later, Frances asked for a new car. You see, the old one was suffering from metal fatigue. They both laughed and Frances got a new car.Frances taught reading and English. For discipline cases, she had a simple punishment: they had to spend five minutes during recess sitting absolutely still and silent in her room. The next step was 10 minutes.“Oh, they absolutely hated that,” she said. But it got my point across.”Ned was also a pai nter in the family farm Midvale Farms. A charter member of the Weslaco Elks Lodge, he served on theWeslaco Airport Board for many years.Ned suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for 18 years. The last seven were spent in a full-care facility.Frances said that she visited him twice a day, every day for those seven years.I think it made all of the difference in the world for him, seeing me. Despite his Alzheimer’s he always knew who I was,” she said.VAnnouncing the opening of, ^Country Polk Welcome! jjJ) Live Music - Friday SaturdayfeaturingMidnight Rodeoformerly Booter’s Tues.-Sat. 5om to 2am
Newspaper Details
Valley Morning Star
Harlingen, Texas, US
Thu, Jun 17, 2004
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Akron S.
OH, USA 19 May 2018
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